When first confronted by The New York Times about the meeting with the Russian lawyer, he said it was only about the adoption by Americans of Russian babies.

Trump asked why his son is being scorned by the "Fake News Media" when Hillary Clinton "illegally [got] the questions to the Debate & [deleted] 33,000 emails".

Among the money spent, was a payment from Trump's official campaign to Donald TrumpDonald TrumpMeet the people who were at Trump Jr.'s Russian Federation meeting Ex-GOP Rep hits Trump's defense of Trump Jr.

Lawyer Jay Sekulow distanced his client from the June 2016 meeting, saying that the President did not know about it at the time. Forty minutes later, he posted, "With all of its phony unnamed sources and highly slanted and even fraudulent reporting, #fake news is distorting democracy in our country".

Rather than call the authorities - as campaigns have done before in such situations, and as is required by patriotism and, perhaps, the law - they eagerly set up a meeting.

A celebrated actor and activist has taken to poetry to try and explain the precarious legal position Donald Trump Jr finds himself in.

The meeting appears to be the most tangible evidence of a connection between Trump's election campaign and Russian Federation, a subject that has prompted investigations by congressional committees and a federal special counsel. Then, it was to hear information about Clinton.

The number of people known to be at the meeting also changed over time.

In a statement to the Times, Mr Trump Jr said she "stated that she had information that individuals connected to Russian Federation were funding the Democratic National Committee and supporting Mrs Clinton".

"I'm not sure why we take anybody in the senior level of the Trump administration at their word", he said.

The meeting was arranged after he was promised compromising information about Democratic rival Hillary Clinton from the Russian government. He's expected to join the White House at the end of the month.